This thesis is devoted to the theoretical characterization and generation of strongly correlated many-body states from the perspective of quantum information theory. We first study the entanglement properties of general many-body states and define a new measure for multipartite entanglement, the "Localizable Entanglement (LE)". It quantifies the maximal entanglement that can be localized, on average, between two parties by performing local measurements on the other parties. This measure provides knowledge of the "entanglement length", which is of particular importance in the context of quantum repeaters for long-distance quantum communication. We prove upper and lower bounds on LE in terms of two-body correlation functions and develop a method for the numerical computation of LE in one-dimensional spin systems. We analyze the localizable entanglement in various spin systems and observe characteristic features for a quantum phase transition such as a diverging entanglement length. In the second part of the thesis we focus on a specific many-body system: ultra-cold atoms in an optical lattice. This system is a promising candidate for the first physical realization of a "quantum simulator", but the temperature in current experiments is still too high. We propose, analyze and compare several schemes to cool the atoms close to the ground state of the strong interaction regime. In particular, we devise an algorithmic cooling protocol that combines occupation number filtering with spin-dependent lattice shifts. In addition, we propose two different physical realizations of filtering and also design protocols that generate an ensemble of quantum registers for quantum computation. In the third part we propose how to create entanglement in small atomic clouds by deforming and rotating the harmonic trapping potential. The resulting states are entangled in their motional degrees of freedom and can be identified with strongly correlated fractional quantum Hall states. For the case of two, three and four atoms we show how to adiabatically transform the unentangled ground state into the desired entangled state. We further discuss characteristic features of these states and propose how to create and detect them experimentally using an optical lattice setup. «

This thesis is devoted to the theoretical characterization and generation of strongly correlated many-body states from the perspective of quantum information theory. We first study the entanglement properties of general many-body states and define a new measure for multipartite entanglement, the "Localizable Entanglement (LE)". It quantifies the maximal entanglement that can be localized, on average, between two parties by performing local measurements on the other parties. This measure provides... »